The King and the Oak
The King and the Oak
Before the shadows slew the sun the kites were soaring free,
And Kull rode down the forest road, his red sword at his knee;
And winds were whispering round the world: "King Kull rides to the sea."
The King and the Oak
Before the shadows slew the sun the kites were soaring free,
And Kull rode down the forest road, his red sword at his knee;
And winds were whispering round the world: "King Kull rides to the sea."
The Legacy of Tubal-Cain
No more!" they swear; I laugh to hear them speak.
And Tubal-Cain who lurks where the shadows shake:
"Break up the swords!" his jaws like iron creak;
"Faster than you may break them, I shall make!"
Yes, break the swords--the old were far too blunt--
Make newer blades with edges diamond keen,
That when we strike, the breasts that bear the brunt
May thrill to beauty of their deathly sheen--
Oh, men who died in Flanders' bloody field,
Against the days to be, Death is your shield.
Robert E. Howard
Recompense
I have not heard lutes beckon me, nor the brazen bugles call,
But once in the dim of a haunted lea I heard the silence fall.
I have not heard the regal drum, nor seen the flags unfurled,
But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world.
I have not seen the horsemen fall before the hurtling host,
But I have paced a silent hall where each step waked a ghost.
I have not kissed the tiger-feet of a strange-eyed golden god,
But I have walked a city's street where no man else had trod.
Midnight
Red leaned his elbows upon the table and cursed. The candle guttered low. The bottle was empty, and a slow fire coiled in our brains--the fire which devours and consumes and destroys but never leaps into full wild flame.
The Vision
I cannot believe in a paradise
Glorious, undefiled,
For gates all scrolled and streets of gold
Are tales for a dreaming child.